Brother, What You Don't Know
by Hogan'sHeroesRock
Summary: *Set in modern era* *I don't own Black Butler* Emily's family adopts a little brother. Too bad it's Ciel Phantomhive. Who knows what things can happen?
1. Chapter 1 - Siblings

I stared at my parents with a blank expression. Their so-called 'fantastic' news still hadn't sunk in. _A brother?_ My mind echoed in shock.

"Honey?" My mom, Lilliana, questioned, reaching forward and touching my arm gently. My dad, Peter, was standing by her side.

"We think it would be a good idea to adopt. Think of all the poor, sad, lonesome, little kids who have no home, no family. Wouldn't it be nice to bring one of them happiness?" Dad frowned a little at me, obviously unsettled by my steely look.

"Why a brother? Why not a sister?" I had known of their previous plans to adopt, and was perfectly fine with it, but a _boy_? Really. My mind drifted fleetingly to the images I had conjured up of me and my new little sister, playing and having fun and discussing girly topics. Painting our nails together. Going shopping. My dad cleared his throat and my mind snapped back to the present. _I guess that won't be happening._

"Because we found an adorable little boy who really needs a family. His name," My mom glanced at Dad, as if asking permission. He nodded and she continued on, "His name is Ciel Phantomhive. He's twelve years old, and he has black-ish blue hair. He's also got these adorable deep blue eyes. So endearing…"

My mouth spoke before my mind could stop it. "Black-ish blue hair? What is he, emo?"

Dad looked at me sharply. "Don't be rude."

I shrank back a little, wincing. "Sorry."

"Honey, we'll be going to the orphanage later this afternoon to go pick him up. Now, he acts a little peculiar, and has a bit of an outdated way of speaking, but he's a great kid. So try your hardest to get along." Mom smiled and stood up from the couch, and I rose as well.

"Okay." For their sake, I tried to smile. "I'll go up to my room and tidy it up a bit." With that I turned on my heel and darted upstairs. Once I got to my room, I hesitated. Stepping to the left, I pushed open the spare bedroom door and went inside. I looked at the walls, at the empty dresser and closet, and at the window. Dust particles glittered faintly in the partial sunlight that streamed in from the shaded window. Shaking my head, I went back in to my room. The small wolf token that I always had kept on my own dresser caught my eye, and an unknown feeling twisted in my chest. Maybe I had been treating this new boy unfairly. After all, he was going to be my brother. I took it in my palm and stared at it, before going back to Ciel's new room. Pulling open the top dresser drawer, I set in there gently. Now, Ciel would have something of mine as a part of his room. I closed the drawer and stepped out of the room, sighing.

"What on earth did I ever do to deserve a brother?" I muttered.

The next few hours passed quite quickly, and before I knew it we were on our way to the orphanage to pick up Ciel. I had my earbuds in, filling my head with the oh so cheerful music of Simple Plan. We pulled up to the main office, and after Dad parked the car we all piled out. The lady rushed out and greeted us, leading us in to the main office swiftly. She was all smiles, extremely cheerful. Almost too cheerful, I noted. Suspicion rose in my mind. Was this kid that bad that she wanted to get rid of him so badly?

"Ciel is already packed and waiting! He was so happy when he found out that he was getting a home! I can't wait for him to finally go to his new family! Of course you guys have to sign some documents, just so it's legal, but you're such a nice family! And this must be Emily!" She chirped. My head was swimming. Did she always talk this fast? I swear, she must have been a hummingbird in her past life.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you-" I started to say, but she cut me off.

"I've heard so much about you! Oh, such a little sweetie you are! No need for formalities, dearie! Just call me Aunt Lizzie!" 'Aunt Lizzie' said, rushing around. Running to her desk, she gathered up several papers in her arms and thrust them at my parents. "Just sign the bottom of each page and you'll be good to go! Oh, and Emily, Ciel's in the other room if you want to go meet him! It's the blue door to your left!"

Silently I nodded, slipping one earbud back in. I opened the door, and it creaked loudly. I shook my head and murmured, "Put some WD-40 on that hinge." Pushing it open the rest of the way, my eyes roamed about the almost empty room until I came upon what could only be Ciel Phantomhive. His right eye was completely covered by long, black-ish blue bangs. His visible eye gleamed a vivid deep blue, shining with intelligence.

I made my way across the room and sat down on the chair across from him. "Hello, Mr. Phantomhive. My name is Emilia Mashintame, but just call me Emily." I could tell from his appearance that he was the sort that demanded-no, needed- politeness. I held out my hand for him to shake. He gracefully grasped my hand in his own and raised it up to his lips, lightly brushing my hand before releasing it.

"Hello, Madame Emily. I see that you are to be my new sister." He murmured, his blue eye piercing my hazel ones. The way he asked his question, it wasn't a question; it was more of a statement than anything.

I dipped my head respectfully in acknowledgement. "Indeed." Internally, I was struggling to process all that had occurred in the past minute or so. He acted way too mature to be twelve. Heck, I was one year older than him and I didn't act that way!

"Is it not rude to be listening to music whilst having a conversation?" He said, obviously spotting my earbud.

"My apologies." I took it out and set it and my phone next to me. "I did not think it would be distracting."

"Why are you so different from the others? So polite and formal, not unlike myself?" He asked, tilting his head slightly. His bangs flopped in his eyes even more so, if that was possible.

I shrugged, then immediately regretted my decision. Shrugging was unladylike. "I do not know the answer to your question."

"Well, then-" Ciel never got to finish his sentence because Mom and Dad barged in. I felt like something had been broken; Ciel seemed to clam up before their very eyes. His visible eye took on a dull appearance, and he stood up. I too grabbed my phone and earbuds, standing up.

"Alright, sweetie, let's go. All the papers have been signed, and now you're officially a Mashintame!" Mom cheered.

"I would have preferred to keep my family's name of Phantomhive. After all, I am a Phantomhive." I heard him, but he spoke so softly that they couldn't.

Dad stepped forward and put an arm around his new son's shoulders. "Come on, let's go home." He smiled grandly, leading him out to the car. Ciel cast his gaze at the ground, but not before he turned and looked at me, his appearance slightly distressed. Of course, I'm sure that Mom nor Dad could tell. He looked very uncomfortable, and I sensed that he wanted to be rescued, but he was too proud to ask for help. I found myself stepping forward and grabbing Ciel's hand, pulling him away from Dad.

"Ciel, you can sit in the back next to me!" I said, quickly coming up with an excuse. Dad feigned hurt. I ignored him and pulled open the door of the car, ushering Ciel inside before I hopped in behind him. It took Mom and Dad a few moments to reach the car; after all, they were slightly slower than us youngsters.

"Thank you." Ciel breathed out, and my head swiveled towards him.

I didn't have to think at all to know what he was referring to. "You're welcome."


	2. Chapter 2 - Contracts & Chess

We had made our way home, although the trip itself was a bit unpleasant; Mom had been pestering Ciel the entire way with questions about room color, decorations, things he liked, etc. I had tried my hardest to rescue him from the onslaught, but Mom had quickly hushed me. I had glanced at Ciel with the slightest bit of remorse, and his look of pain had broken my heart.

Once we got home, I insisted that I be the one to show Ciel around the house, despite their protests. When they had thought that I wasn't looking, they beamed at each other, probably pleased that I had taken such a liking to my new brother. It wasn't quite so much that I liked him; I had only known him for barely half a day, but I did feel the need to protect him.

I took him upstairs to my room. Internally, I was quite stressed. What would he think of my room? For the first time in a long time, I cringed at how it must appear to someone who had had little. It must seem like I was very spoiled. Which, I suppose, indeed I was.

"Are you okay, Madame Emily? You keep contorting your face into pained expressions." Ciel noted, and I blinked at him.

"What? Oh… sorry. I was thinking." I replied, forgetting for a moment the properness that our words were almost deemed necessary to hold. "And please, just call me Emily. No need for that Madame stuff, I'm your sister now." I pushed open the door to my room with baited breath. He nodded in acknowledgement.

He stepped inside and gasped slightly. His round eye took in the amazing sights of my room. The cozy warm white of the multiple lights lit the room, and on the back wall, my 40 gallon fish tank glowed. He stepped closer to the tank in awe. "Spectacular…" he breathed. He stood there, mesmerized, for several minutes, watching the colorful fish swim around. When he finally turned away, he glanced about the room, taking in my wooden desk, the bookshelf, the 36" flatscreen tv, and the small couch. Amidst all of this rested a queen-size bed, and hanging from the ceiling was an airy purple curtain that draped over it.

I coughed, breaking the silence. "Would you like to see your bedroom next, or would you like to visit the library?"

His head swiveled around to look at me for the first time since stepping foot into my room. "I would indeed like to see my bedroom, but what is the approximate distance to the library?"

"It's approximately six feet from your bedroom."

"You have a library _in your house_." He stared at me, his eyes narrowing as this new information sunk in.

"Yeah." I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant.

"Let's go there first." He beamed. It was then that I noted that he was smiling.

"Okay." I wanted to keep him smiling. His smile seemed to light up the room, and I didn't want him to ever lose that smile. Although he probably would lose it, because something would be bound to determine to make him unhappy. So I led him out of my room, past his room, and to the library.

"We call it the Archives." I told him suddenly. "But just like a real library, at the Archives, each book that is 'checked out' gets recorded under the person's name. And if any serious damage occurs to the book, it must be replaced by the person that ruined it, out of their own pocket. You'll see what I mean in a moment."

We stepped inside. There was a detector built into the frame of the door, as well as each of the windows, so no books could be smuggled out unchecked. I motioned to the sign on the wall that was engraved in a large gold-colored plate. It read: Welcome to the Archives, open 24/7. Maximum checkout count is 3 at any time. Everything must be returned by Monday at 12:00 pm, unless renewed. Maximum time anything can be checked out is 3 weeks. If a book, DVD, magazine or otherwise is damaged or ruined in a way that renders it unreadable, the person responsible is required to reimburse the Archives. Thank you for following these simple rules, and enjoy your time at the Archives!

"It is good to have such rules in place." Ciel murmured appreciatively before gazing at the thousands of aisles.

"There's almost every single book, magazine, DVD and newspaper stored here." I told him. "There's also a research area, which has three PCs, three laptops, and three iPads."

"And if you wish to find a certain book?" He asked.

"You ask Robo." I smiled, before pressing a large green button. Suddenly a semi-holographic woman flickered to life before our very eyes.

"Welcome back to the Archives, Emily! And who is this fine young man here?" She said.

"Robo, this is my new brother, Ciel. He was just curious to find out how anyone could find a certain book."

"Welcome to the family, Ciel! It's a pleasure to meet you. Now, is there anything in particular that I can help you find?" Robo asked.

"No, there is nothing at the moment. Thank you, though." He looked past her at all the books. I could tell that he wanted to explore, but he was too polite to leave the conversation.

"You're welcome! If I am no longer needed, then I shall go restock the shelves. Your father ordered several hundred more books, and I need to find a place for them all!" She chirped pleasantly.

After she disappeared, Ciel turned to face me, a question burning in his gaze. "The Mashintame family is very wealthy."

I nodded. "We're like, over trillionaires."

"Then you would have the money to hire a butler."

That startled me. Of course, we obviously had the money to hire one, but we had always done things ourselves. "Yes, we have the ability to hire a butler, but we've never found the need for one."

"And why not?"

I sighed. Explaining things in detail was not my forte. "I don't know, Ciel, we just never have." A thought struck me. "Why? You want a butler?"

He looked slightly shocked at the fact that I had clued in to his prying. "Perhaps," he concluded, "It would be thought-provoking to try." The corners of my mouth curled up into a small smile.

"I'll make you a deal," I started to say, as something occurred to me. "If I try to find a butler for you, will you teach me chess?" I recalled reading on his profile that he was a mastermind at chess.

"Is this a formal contract, or a… how is it that you children say, a behind-the-scenes occurrence?" He looked intrigued. I pondered this for a moment. I didn't think that Ciel would go back on his word- he was way too formal to seem the type to do so- and it seemed relatively safe to not have a contract. However, there was always the possibility that after I found him the butler he desired, that the lack of contract could cause issues if he didn't actually want to teach me chess.

But then again, why did I want to learn chess?

Was it because I wanted something to draw us closer together as brother and sister? Some form of similarity?

Time seemed to stand still as I made my decision, and the library was so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop. "A formal contract." I decided. "I can create one on the computer, and we can revise it as many times as we want until it is to our liking."

He nodded, seemingly approving of the plan. "A wise choice." He stepped forward, towards me, several times until we were almost touching, and looked me in the eye. "Why do you hold an interest for chess?"

"Because I already know how to play checkers, and am in fact quite good at it. Best to broaden the horizons, as they say." I replied, staring back with equal intensity.

"Indeed."

With that, we went back to the computer lab, contract in mind. A kind of peace fell between us, secure in the knowledge that we would have something that would last a lifetime.

* * *

I would like to thank NoticeMeFreedSenpai for the review. It honestly means quite a lot to me. I'm very happy that you think that I portrayed Ciel in his true form. Sometimes I think that formalness is quite hard to capture.

This is the first Black Butler fanfiction that I've ever wrote (my 2nd one, Black Cats & Demon Hounds, is kinda outside of the realistic spectrum of the true Black Butler series, or so I think), and I haven't even watched very much of it (not even the whole Season 1) and so therefore I'm not 100% sure if everything is correct. I do try to keep everything in line with the anime, though.

Anyways, I hope that you all enjoy the second chapter of Brother, What You Don't Know. Despite the fact that I had only published the first chapter yesterday, I couldn't help but want to work on it some more. I plan on writing the third chapter sometime next week, probably on Tuesday, but we'll see how things go. The more reviews I receive, the more willing I am to write more chapters.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!


	3. Chapter 3 - Butlers & Brothers

_\- 3 days later –_

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. The search for Ciel's 'perfect' butler had been experiencing multiple bumps in the road.

Every time I found one that seemed nice, competent, and helpful, I would ask Ciel to come and talk with him a moment. After not even a few minutes, Ciel would abruptly leave the room, dragging me with him. Some of the previous conversations had gone like this:

"That man is an idiot! He would mess up any order I gave, I can tell."

"He is too shy. Like a field mouse, any time I gave an order he would skitter away."

"No, he won't do. A butler for a Phantomhive-" he still called himself a Phantomhive, albeit only around me, "must exceed in every skill. He must be versatile in his dialogue. And above all else, he must remain loyal to me no matter what."

"My dear sister, you must be losing your senses. There is no way that that man could fulfill the role of a butler."

I was getting rather frustrated. There was no human being alive that could fulfill Ciel's wishes. He was asking the impossible. My brother- I concluded- must be insane. For a brief moment, I considered just giving up, chess lessons or not. But then again, I never had been one to give up. So, I pressed on ahead, looking through the quickly-thinning market of butlers. None of them fit the standards Ciel had set. The only thing I could do was keep looking. I had already interviewed countless men, some of which were quite appalling.

Taking a sip of water from my water bottle that was next to me, I sighed. "Next," I called, perched on a director's chair from which I interviewed the candidates.

The door swung open, and a black-haired man came through. Dressed in a traditional black-and-white suit with coattails, he appeared almost overdressed for the interview.

"What is your name?" I asked, clipboard in hand and pen at the ready.

"My name is of no importance, you may call me whatever you wish, Madame." He spoke, ensuring eye contact.

 _Okay, why do I get the impression that he's hiding something, and also doesn't have a name? His eyes aren't a normal color. I mean, seriously, who has red eyes apart from contacts?_

I shivered. His blood-red eyes gave me the creeps, no matter how handsome he was or how eloquently he spoke. I wanted to get rid of him right away. However, I still had to continue with my interview. I sensed that he wasn't a normal person, and if I immediately send him off he might come back- or worse.

I had opened my mouth to speak again when I heard a meow. I looked down to see a black cat at the man's feet. "Now, now, this isn't the time to be following me around." The man said, and the cat meowed back. "I do not care, go back home." He said, tapping his foot once on the floor. The cat stalked around a corner and vanished.

I gaped at him, although I quickly composed myself. He was talking. With a cat. A cat! And the cat responded like it understood him! I shuddered again. _That's it, screw the if-I-immediately-send-him-off-he-might-come-back-or-worse theory!_ "Sir, cats are not allowed. You also talked to it, which may be a sign of insanity. I request that you leave this room and this property at once."

He stood up, a faint glare in his eyes, although when I blinked it was gone. "Your wish is my command." He murmured, bowing at the waist with his hand over his heart. Then he turned and walked to the door. "You will be giving me a call later." He said with utmost certainty, before vanishing from the room.

 _Why is it that I get the distinct impression that I actually will be giving him a call later?_

Suddenly Ciel popped into the room. "Well, how are things going?" He asked.

I looked up at him. "Not very well," I groaned, "Not a single person so far has met your requirements."

He tutted. "There will be one who will. After all, they are only pawns."

I nodded in agreement. "I will keep searching." Inwardly I frowned. All of my vacation time is being devoted into finding Ciel his perfect butler! My mind wandered fleetingly to my anime collection, waiting to be watched. A sudden longing swept over me and I faltered. On one hand, I wanted to help Ciel. But on the other, how much was I willing to give up in order to help him?

I growled, smashing my hand into the nearest thing available, which was a lamp- quite expensive, I might add, because Victorian-style lamps imported directly from England are not cheap- and winced as it shattered all over the floor.

Immediately I wanted to pin it on someone other than myself, because obviously, I knew better, but we had no dog that could have knocked it over, and Ciel was brutally honest. So I gathered a broom and dustpan and set about sweeping up the mess. I knew I would have to pay for the lamp, and it would come out of my allowance, but the other part of me rebelled and declared 'I'm not paying for it!'.

* * *

Hey there, fellow fans!

I just want to say that I really appreciate your support. I'm uploading this at 3:56 am, almost 4 in the morning. I stayed up really really late to write this for you all. My apologies, I know I said I would update on Tuesday and it's already Thursday. I've just been really busy.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Btw, for you Naruto (anime or manga) fans out there, I'm thinking of starting another fanfic about Itachi.

{EDIT 1.17.18: I'll be trying to update this soon. A lot has been going on in my life, rendering me incapable of updating or writing anything. A new chapter will be coming soon!}


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